One of our inactive members, Kevin Wood, has owned an ICS M4 and the thing was garbage. He was designated our SAW gunner since the bbs had no accuracy whatsoever and he pumped rounds into that thing constantly. The split (ver 7) gearbox is really cool because, like birdman said, it is easy to pop a new spring in. You can also release the spring tension by pushing the (forward assist button?). Unfortunately, his gun did not perform well with an upgraded spring and in retrospect, its nifty features are not worth it.

Just my opinion, you may get lucky.

dre from wet works has one and love its. his doesnt have any accuracy problems. but well find out the 15th or so when my gun gets here

Cool, well definitely keep me posted. And honestly I don't think the gearbox thing is going to be TOO big of a problem, as I like challenges like that.

In all reality, I would be upgrading the gun so infrequently that I really don't see a problem with it at all. Sure, being able to "hot swap" to a different thing would be cool, but if the accuracy really is as crappy as Admin said, I dunno. :/ Accuracy is a big concern of mine, and EVERY post I've seen and comment I've heard about the CA is positive, and really leaning me towards CA.

Yeah, based on admin's comments, I don't feel like its smart to take that kind of risk with the ICS M4. So I might be going the same direction as Lane.

I have heard nothing positive that would ever convince me to buy an ICS, where as on the other hand I have seen and had nothing but positive experiances with CA.

I might consider one based on what I've seen from Dre's M4. I'd also be interested in their 'improved' 2006 models.

i have nothing good to say about CA. the front grip of my G36 doesnt fit right with a battery in it. it also doesnt work with the fuse connected in it. and the 3rd time using it i ended up pulling a connector out of the gun. on my M4 when i opend up the gear box, wires were cut from rubing against the gears. and it was a pain in the ass to take apart. so i might as well go with a cheaper gun and try something else cuz CA just isnt working for me. also the 2006 model is supposed to be new and improved

An opinion based on one gun shouldn't ruin your whole experience with CA, birdman. I was working on a TM G36 and that gun doesn't have much room for batteries in the handgrip either. I think you sacrifice storage space for what the real gun would look like. M4's can't hold batteries in the hand grip that well, either which is why you see a lot of those battery PEQ boxes or crane stocks. It's something airsofters will have to live with.

Anyways, not everything about CA is perfect, but in my opinion it beats the hell out of any other brand. Toggle's STAR L85 feels really good too and I guess its build quality is also good.

CA guns have all the features with none of the hassle most new players want - they're metal, feel more realistic, have nicer finishes, and better out of the box FPS than a TM - meaning you can keep up with the big boys on a tighter budget.

ICS guns are garbage. I have owned one, and it was a money funnel. I pitched everything on it except the metal body - and that I sold on eBay.


Call me old skool, but I still stand with TM guns. I like being comforted in knowing that it'll "go bang" everytime I pull the trigger. I like the consistency in quality - especially on their gearboxes. They have some issues from model to model, but the same can be said of any gun by any maker.

Of course, this is my opinion on things. YMMV

I've seen some CA guns to to hell. I also know Ilocosr loves his ICS M4. If one looks around enough, you'll find good and bad reviews for every company.

Most reviews of the G&G M14 say it's terrible. I have one and love it.

In the end, it's your money. If you feel comfortable with it, then go for it. If you have doubts, save your money and spend it on something else.

admin wrote:

LaneAtomic wrote: If I do anything, it will probably be small stuff like a tightbore. Accuracy trumps FPS, imo. Yeah but by increasing your FPS, you are also increasing accuracy in a way. A tightbore barrel is nice, but you won't achieve as much distance with it than with a more powerful spring. A spring upgrade is cheaper and will give you more distance and probably more accuracy than a tightbore barrel.

Well, I'm looking into a M120 spring upgrade on the CA M15A4 Tactical Carbine, but I'm not really on a budget to go order it upgraded. With a $60 upgrade along with a better battery that costs around $55. However, admin said that the spring will help distance and accuracy. How nescesary is an upgrade?

There's a number of factors that can impact accuracy in an airsoft gun.

A spring by itself can add range to the shots. But the way it improves accuracy is by getting bbs to go farther before they fall, it does NOT improve shot groups. And if you stick with the standard .20 weight bb, it can actually reduce accuracy. The lighter bbs being launched at a higher fps would encounter greater air resistance, and can be deflected by the wind. That can be remedied by using a heavier bb, with an M120 a .25 weight should do fine. The heavier bb has some more mass that can carry it through the air better than the lightweight bbs.

When a bb is shot down the barrel, it doesn't shoot the same as a real gun. In firing a real gun the bullet expands into the grooves of the rifling, and thus will come out of the barrel flying much straighter than from a smooth-bore. In airsoft, the bb doesn't expand.

Given a perfectly round bb and a flawless barrel, when shot, the bb will bounce along the length of the barrel until it leaves the gun. The idea of the tightbore barrel is that by making the bore size smaller, there is less room for the bb to bounce around, and so the bb should shoot straighter when it leaves the barrel. And because there is less room for air to escape around the bb, there is more pressure behind the bb, and the fps can be slightly improved (not by much).

There's more that can directly effect accuracy, but that's a start.

I also heard on some reviews that with a M120 and 9.6V 3300 mah has an insane ROF but the wire internals get damaged by the spring's motion. Does this happen all the time?

Well, once you start changing anything about the AEG internals you're killing the life span.


I think with a 9.6v battery and an M120 spring, you'll wear out the gears faster or break a piston more often than any other issue.


I personally don't see the point of a 9.6v battery in a lightly upgraded gun - the ROF may be insane, but these things are shooting unrealistically fast to start with, anyways...

Controlled bursts good. Dumping 300+ rounds to take out a target doesn't make much sense.

And to the previous comment of low-caps. I'm definitely on the low-cap end of the spectrum. I like the fact that I have a 30 round mag and that's it. Teach you to conserve ammo and place better shots.

I like the 30 rounders because of the realism and like Atomic said, you learn to conserve your shots. I wouldn't mind buying a few mid-caps though just because a real bullet would be a lot more accurate than an airsoft bb, so in my opinion the larger capacity can make up for that flaw. I used to use hi-caps, but those are really unreal because you have to wind them and you hear them shake in your gun. Even still, many seasoned airsofters will suggest buying low-caps just to maintain as many aspect of realism as possible. Just my 2 cents as toggle would say